Being a Foodie, I always had this habit of helping my mom cook since a young age, and then once I started eating a Lot in Hotel, I used to come back home and some changes myself, here I will will post recipes of those dishes.

Thursday, March 28, 2013

Black Dog Trivia

I was researching
about Black Dog Scotch Whisky on Google, Wikipedia and other places on the net
for writing about it and I got to know some really interesting trivia about
Scotch whisky which are really amazing stuff about Scotch Whisky!

Did you know that Scotch whisky is always spelled without an
“e” ? Most other nations such as United States, Australia and Ireland call
their similar spirits Whiskey. I being very bad in spellings found this very
interesting decided never to add an “e” when writing to a Scotsman. Simple way
to remember the spelling is if it comes from a country without an “e” in its
spelling, then its spelt Whisky. (eg Scotland, Japan, Canada).

Scotch whisky is a lot like distilled beer. It’s made using
malted barley but no hops are added like you add to beer. It’s then distilled
twice to create a smooth strong spirit that is aged in oak barrels for a minimum
of 3 years before it can be called whisky. Traditionally these barrels came
from the port-producing regions of Portugal and the Sherry-producing regions of
Spain. As these became harder to obtain, Scotch distilleries turned to their
American cousins in Kentucky to buy Bourbon barrels, which by law could only be
used once before being discarded.

There are a number of classifications of Scotch whisky, but
the main ones are:

Blended Whisky: This is a mix of grain whisky and malt
whisky, and makes up the majority of Scotch that is consumed around the world.

Single
Grain Whisky: This is relatively rare and is made from unmalted grains such as
corn.

Blended Malt Whisky: This is also sometimes known as “Vatted Malts” or
“Pure Malts” It is made from blends of a number of single malt whiskies from
across Scotland.

Single Malt Whisky: This is made, as the name suggests, from
malted barley grains from a single distillery. They’re often sold with age
statements (10/12/18 years, etc.), which means that they are a blend of single
malts from the same distillery where the youngest whisky used is the age stated
on the bottle, unless it is a single cask bottle where the whisky must all be
from the same making.

If you were wondering, the term “whisky” is actually derived
from the Gaelic words uisage beatha, which in turn came from the Latin Acqua
Vitae or “water of life.” It’s thought that the name refers to the fact that
these spirits were first used by monks for medicinal purposes. Very interesting
history, isn’t it? Strangely the oldest reference to the production of whisky
is not in fact in Scotland, but in Ireland, where it is believed that monks began
distilling spirits as far back as the fifth century.

A staggering one billion bottles of scotch are exported from
Scotland every year. America is the second-largest customer, importing an
impressive 120 million bottles a year. This is still quite a ways behind the
French, however, who are rapidly approaching 200 million bottles a year.

Ever wondered what’s the best way to drink whisky? Most
distillers suggest adding just a very small amount of room-temperature water to
the glass. This lowers the alcohol content slightly and allows many of the
distinct flavors of the spirit to come to the front.